10 Horror Movies With Terrifying Surprises

6. Hooking Up With A Corpse - Terror Train

Urban Legends Final Cut
20th Century Fox

1980's Terror Train is a picture that has a deranged, masked killer tormenting a group of college kids during a New Year's Eve party that's bizarrely being held on a train.

As for said killer, that's former classmate Kenny Hampson (Derek MacKinnon), who had been locked up in a psychiatric hospital for the past three years.

For those wondering why Kenny had been locked up during those years, that's because the poor fella had an absolutely horrendous prank pulled on him; a prank so traumatic, it caused him to have a mental breakdown and ultimately vow revenge on those who'd wronged him.

The opening scene of Terror Train sets the stall for all of this, with the mild-mannered Kenny lured into a room on the promise of getting laid. It's Jamie Lee Curtis' Alana who is reluctantly convinced to trick Kenny into said room, and it's only once the lights are turned on that Kenny has the truly awful surprise of discovering he's been fondling a mutilated dead body.

Yep, dead body. Like, a proper corpse.

While Terror Train doesn't reveal its masked killer's identity until its final act, you find yourself genuinely hoping that it is Kenny carrying out these murders - for he more than deserved some slice of revenge.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.